La Liga club confident they can sign this Arsenal first-team star for TWO reasons

Real Sociedad are continuing to pursue Arsenal defender Nacho Monreal, hoping to lure him to Spain with regular first-team football and the chance to be close to his family.

With pre-season training beginning this week, Real Sociedad want to conclude a deal for the Arsenal man as quickly as possible.

Monreal is their priority signing, according to Mercado Gol, particularly as the left-back only has a year left on his current deal in North London.

Sociedad aren’t missing out on anything so far, as Monreal isn’t back from his holiday to restart training with Arsenal anyway. However, they expect the talks to move slowly, if at all, so the sooner they get started the better.

As mentioned, the La Liga side are trying to use regular football as a draw. Monreal is 32 years old, and competing with 25-year-old Sead Kolasinac, so it’s possible he could end up losing his place sooner rather than later. That’s much less likely to be the case in a team like Sociedad’s.

Nonetheless, this is the player who finished second in Arsenal’s Player of the Season poll last campaign. If Monreal keeps up his good form, he should still be a starter under Unai Emery.

After that, it just comes down to how much Monreal wants to return to his family in Spain. We’ll have to wait and see.